PEORIA — With former Charter Oak Principal John Wetterauer now on medical leave, the group that organized to save his position has broadened its base to put heat on the District 150 School Board and Superintendent Grenita Lathan.

The Charter Oak Parent and Teacher Committee's Special Action Committee dissolved last week and joined forces with Change150, a new community coalition that will address the Peoria City Council's policy session Tuesday.

"We're committed to holding the superintendent and the School Board to the same level of accountability they have arbitrarily and, I think in some cases, unfairly exercised on principals, administrators and teachers," said Jim Powell, president of Change150. The group also wants to celebrate what's good about District 150.

Powell, who has two children in special education classes, one at Mark Bills Middle School, the other at Charter Oak, said his tipping point was District 150's investigation of irregularities in how teachers administered standardized tests to special education students at Charter Oak and possible cheating. Dan Dugal, who had been chairman of Charter Oak's Special Action Committee, is vice president of the new group.

Dugal is among a number of people scheduled to make statements either at a rally before the City Council meeting or during the public comments portion of the meeting. Others include retired District 150 administrators Cheryl Sanfilip, Thom Simpson and John Meisinger; teachers' union president Jeff Adkins-Dutro; the Rev. Harold Dawson Jr., president of the Peoria Area Christian Leadership Council; and a District 150 parent, Chris Martin.

Powell, who is pastor of Richwoods Christian Church, said he personally believes it's time for Lathan to go. "And until some board members begin to stand up and accept their culpability in all this, they need to go, too."

Change150 supporters will rally at 5:45 p.m. at the Contemporary Art Center, 305 SW Water St., where the City Council's special policy session begins at 6 p.m.

Parents charged District 150 mishandled the Charter Oak investigation and packed board meetings in protest. Wetterauer, who allegedly failed to train teachers properly, was reassigned before the district approved his request for medical leave. Two Charter Oak special education teachers were transferred to different schools.

As the pressure against Lathan and the board heats up, some parents are raising questions about Wetterauer.

"He is not the person they're trying to portray," said Morris Jackson, whose daughter attends Charter Oak. "That man had been dropping the ball long before Lathan got here."

Still, Change150's efforts piggyback on an online petition started by a group called the Tuesday Morning Breakfast Club about two months ago.

The petition declares no confidence in Lathan and calls for her immediate termination.

"There are so many people who are dissatisfied with the lack of progress in regards to testing, the wholesale movement of personnel around the district and too many outsiders at the top," said Jan Diessler, a former District 150 board member, who's part of the of the breakfast club.

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